Space in the Clouds
by Sir-Not-Appearing-In-This-Show
Summary: She should have known he wouldn't leave her alone. Post-5x01.


**How awesome was that premiere? This season looks like it's going to be great.**

**I'm really excited to see more of these two interacting. Not saying that I ship it, but yeah, I do. I ship it.**

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><p>It's right where she remembers it to be. Secluded just off of the forest, half surrounded by those tall trees. There's no one around, but she reminds herself it's early morning, and just barely springtime. The odds that it remained empty for her centuries of imprisonment are slim.<p>

The surface of the water is still and glassy, and when she makes her way to the edge she can see her own reflection. She looks _older_, but there's something else. Something lurking in her eyes.

Her heels dig in the sand, so she tugs off her boots and wiggles out her toes. The sand feels soft beneath her feet, gentle and yielding.

Mara strips quickly, stepping out of the outfit she so carefully selected this morning. She couldn't wear any of _Audrey's_ clothes; too boring, too bland. But she did well with what she had, and at least she no longer looks like a kindergarten teacher.

The water's colder than she remembers. She loses her footing a couple of times, out of practice in the mud.

She gets to about waist deep before she stops and tilts her head back, looking up at the clear sky. If she closes her eyes she can just imagine William trailing a few feet behind her, the two of them giddy from a day's work well done.

But when she turns around she's all alone in the water. Mara trails a finger along the surface, watching the ripples spread out before she ducks underneath. It's murkier than it was some hundred years ago, and she can't make out anything when she opens her eyes. Just dirty, dark water.

As she breaks the surface she sees movement on the banks. She turns quickly, unsurprised by the face that greets her.

"Are you following me?"

She shouldn't be surprised, he's too dumb to give up that easily. Too dumb, or too love stricken. Perhaps they're the same thing.

"No." Nathan looks uncomfortable, shifting his stance on the beach.

"You're a terrible liar." The water flows into her mouth and she wrinkles her nose at the salt. She stands suddenly, and it's hard to miss the way Nathan quickly averts his eyes, turning his whole body away.

_Ridiculous_. It's not like he hasn't seen it all, anyway.

"Who do you call when the police are the ones stalking you?" There's less bite in her words than there should be. She wants every word a dagger, but she's already growing dull.

Nathan narrows his eyes. He doesn't say a thing, but she can imagine what's going through his head. He's like a broken record, all he asks for is _Audrey, Audrey, Audrey_. He can't see -or rather, he _won't_ see- that she's gone. Never was, in truth.

Audrey Parker was a shell, a disguise, a false memory stuffed inside of her. She was a fake.

_What does that say about the man who loved her?_

Mara bites down on her lip, traces his form against the bright sky. "I didn't know how to swim." She rocks back on her heels, sinking centimeters lower as the soft ground gives way. "William had to teach me." She wants to ask _'can you?'_, but he grew up in a seaside town, he might as well have gills.

She gave someone gills a long, long time ago, didn't she? It's hard to keep them all straight. There's the fun ones, the ones that stick out to her. But there were so many, for so long. She can't possibly remember each and every one.

Nathan's gaze lands on her again, and something about it seems to warm her skin in a way that's not entirely unpleasant.

"Come in." She finds herself offering, though she can't quite figure out why. She sinks back below the water, until just her shoulders are visible.

He frowns deeply, and she can see the gears in his head turning. "What?"

_Stupid, stupid, stupid._ "Come in." She repeats, and this time it's not an invite.

For half a second he seems to consider it. But he shakes his head and sets his posture; arms crossed, legs firmly planted on the ground. She knows that pose, it means he wants something, and he's not letting her alone until he gets it.

"You didn't kill me."

She should have. She should have emptied her gun into his back. She should come up on the sand and wring his neck right now.

"You had the chance. You had plenty. Why didn't you?" There's that note of hope in his voice, although she doesn't know what for. Does he think she's going to spring up and declare her love for him? Tell him she's still Audrey, she still wants him, she could never kill him because it's _true love_.

The thought makes her laugh.

Nathan's brow furrows even more. It shouldn't be physically possible for one man to be so sullen, she thinks.

Truthfully she can't figure out why he's not dead. Her finger was on the trigger, he was laying _right there_ and she didn't do it.

"I _shot_ you." Mara answers, more to herself than to him. She put one in his chest, and who knows, maybe he could have bled out on that beach.

He seems to have healed remarkably quickly, although she notes a slight wince as he moves his arms. He creeps just barely closer and there's a sharp sensation that runs through her. Part of her wants him here and part of her wants him gone, and she can't tell which part is _her_.

Nathan crouches down so he's nearly level with her out in the water. "You couldn't." He says simply, as if it's a fact and he's known it all along.

_No_, no that isn't quite right. Means, motive, and execution. She could have. It's something different, something horribly, horribly wrong with her.

"I didn't want to."

There's water in her mouth again, but she swallows it down. It tastes like the earth, like grit and dirt and all that salt.

Mara doesn't know if this is the truth, or if she's just stringing him along. She's not stopped thinking about that same moment, running through all that she could have done. It seems so easy in retrospect; all she had to do was pull the trigger. Just a twitch of her hand and-

_He'd have been gone._

But in the moment there was so much more. There was this immeasurable desire to keep him alive, to keep him safe. There was something blocking her, some force that whispered _no, don't. Stop. Please._

So she did. She left him there alone. Not dead, but clearly not in one piece either.

"Why not?" His voice brings her back to reality, and she notices that he's moved still nearer to her. The water is just lapping at the toes of his boots, but he doesn't seem to care.

She sucks in a deep breath, pushing the air out slowly.

"_'Why not?_'" She mimics, her voice taunting. "Would you rather I had? Do you still have some ridiculous, martyr death wish?"

He doesn't even flinch, just stares at her with those big, dumb-puppy eyes. The silence stretches long between them, and she can't figure out how to break it. Doesn't want to risk ruining- _what_, exactly?

There's a weight pushing down on her, a pressure coming from his intrusive gaze, and she lets it break her. She drops down below the water again, turning so she knows she's facing the other direction, and swims out as far as she can. She keeps going until her lungs burn, until her brain is screaming.

When she finally resurfaces he's gone, and the beach is empty once more.


End file.
